The Monkey Goes Bananas by C. P. Bloom (review)

The problem: the monkey is on a beach, the banana tree is on an island, and the water separates the two. A quick dip of the toe reveals that the water also contains the shark. The solution? Well, the stilts sink into the hole, and the fishing pole just pulls the shark up onto the beach, but the vines seem to work as a lasso to bend the banana tree and catapult the monkey to the island—the bunch, however, drops onto the beach and the one banana that the monkey manages to hang onto on his flight to the island falls right into the shark’s mouth. Using only descriptive nouns in all caps to draw attention to the key player on the page (“THE MONKEY”), the story relies primarily on a visual narrative, and the digitally enhanced paintings accomplish the telling admirably. Hazy but thick outlines filled with dappled coloration combine to create the ultimate animated-film aesthetic, with comics-style panels interspersed with full pages throughout. High action pages (when the monkey escapes the shark’s jaws to end up dripping and clinging to the wreckage, you’d swear his huge eyes are actually twitching) combine with the happy-go-lucky tone and a deadpan twist ending for a thoroughly engaging experience.